First Building (1876-1908)
After years of planning and fundraising, the congregation completed and dedicated its first synagogue building just in time for the nation’s Centennial celebration—providing a strong and symbolic presence for Jewish immigrants on that historic occasion. The synagogue stood at the corner of 6th and G Streets, NW, in the heart of the city’s residential and commercial center, where many of the congregants lived and worked.
An influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia swelled the congregation’s numbers. The congregation continued to worship in the original synagogue until 1908, when a new building at Sixth and I Streets, NW, was dedicated. The original building was sold to Stephen Gatti, an Italian fruit dealer and real estate investor who lived a block away. In the 1910s, Saint Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Church worshipped in the second-floor sanctuary. A succession of churches followed in the 1920s to 1940s.
During the course of the next 60 years, the former synagogue’s first floor was divided into retail spaces and housed a bicycle shop, barber, Joseph Funger’s grocery store, Anthony Litteri’s delicatessen, and other businesses.
In the 1960s, plans for the construction of Metro headquarters threatened the building with demolition. With the support of federal and city agencies, the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington saved the building and moved it three city blocks to its current location at Third and G Streets, NW. On September 1, 1969, President Richard Nixon signed a law authorizing the District to purchase the building and lease it to the Society for historic preservation purposes—at $1 a year for 99 years.
The historic synagogue building has been restored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and is now home to the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum. Washington’s oldest surviving synagogue building, it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites, and the Historic American Buildings Survey. It is among the oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States. It is also an official project of the Save America’s Treasures program.
Today the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington hosts building tours, walking tours, lectures, student field trips, weddings, and bar and bat mitzvahs in the historic sanctuary.
Read more about this topic: Adas Israel Congregation (Washington, D.C.), Buildings
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Now he goes left. Now he goes right.
He is building a city, a city of flesh.
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